5 Questions For Ian Golding

The UK Customer Experience Awards is a programme that gathers leading CX professionals, recognises their outstanding achievements and promotes them across the industry. Year after year, successful companies and individuals take part in UK CXA?, demonstrating their results and thus get a unique opportunity to promote their business further and hone their skills. Many of our entrants, finalists and winners have significantly improved their careers, and reached new heights, right after participating in the awards - and they also became invaluable members of our community.

Ian Golding is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) and Customer Experience Specialist, with over 20 years of experience. In 2012, he became an independent business consultant, working on projects across many industries, and he has published over 300 articles and delivered keynote speeches at events worldwide. Back in 2010, Ian Golding won the Professional of the Year at the?UK Customer Experience Awards ?and since then went on to become a dear member of our community. Over the years, he took part in the awards as a judge, speaker, and host. He was appointed event Chair in 2017 and is currently on the Steering Council for the 2022 edition of the awards.

We were honoured to have a talk with Ian about his career in customer experience, the state of the industry in the UK and his overview of this year's programme.

1. When did you first become aware of customer experience and its importance?

To be honest, I feel that I have always believed in the importance of customer experience – long before it even became recognised as a profession. In the very early stages of my career, I struggled when I was asked to do things that I knew would not be in the interests of the customer – I regularly ‘pushed back’ against these ‘orders’ – sometimes did this not do me any favours personally!! To me, the most obvious thing in the world was to do what was ‘right’; for the customer – this would in turn be good for the organisation – I believe very much in this mantra to this day.

2. What helped you decide to pursue CX as a career? What was the "a-ha!" moment?

I first had CX in my job title in 2005. However, I instinctively knew that enabling organisations to better meet the needs and expectations of the customer would define my career in the late nineties. I was fortunate enough to work for GE (General Electric) when Jack Welch was CEO. Still recognised as one of the most transformational business leaders of all time, Welch strongly believed in the principle of customer centricity – I had never heard that terminology before, but it made so much sense to me. My time at GE is hugely down to who I am as a CX Professional today.

3. From winning at UK CXA in 2010 to hosting the awards this year, it's been a long, exciting journey for you. How would you reflect on it? What advice would you give to those joining the programme for the first time?

My involvement with the awards is something that I am so very proud of – over twelve years of being an entrant, finalist, winner, judge, chair of judges and now host – the awards have played a very important part in my CX life and evolution. I have always believed that as well as helping me to develop my own career (initially as an employee, then as an independent specialist), the knowledge, inspiration and friendship I have picked up along the way has done so much to help me develop my specialism. To those joining the awards for the first time – as a judge or as a finalist – embrace the learning; embrace the experience; embrace the pleasure in being able to get recognition for the incredibly hard and important work CX professionals do. Even those who do not win an award, just being part of the process is extremely significant and important and must be celebrated.

4. In your view, are UK companies doing enough for customer experience, and what could they do better? What are the biggest challenges UK businesses face in improving their CX processes, and how do other parts of the world?

In short – NO!! Whilst we have seen a significant increase in organisations talking about CX, very few are turning the words into meaningful, measurable, demonstrable change. Whilst many employees understand the challenges customers are facing (as well as themselves – the employees), leadership in general is far too removed from understanding the reality of what it's like to be a customer AND an employee. Short term decision making, often driven by commercial goals, are regularly making CX and EX worse. The lack of long term committed focus towards CX is preventing organisations from truly adapting to being customer led, rather than product or sales led. Whilst the current economic climate is incredibly challenging, until or unless those who lead organisations are prepared to stop and think about their true purpose, putting customers and employees at the forefront of their thinking, long-term sustainable growth will be very difficult to achieve.

5. Why would you recommend taking part in UK CXA '22? How can a company benefit from entering the awards?

This years UK CXA will be an amazing celebration of both CX and EX. Seeing people coming back together in person at Wembley after two years of virtual awards will be exhilarating – the need to recognise, acknowledge and celebrate the efforts of CX Professionals is more important than ever before. Being part of this years awards will not only help you to validate that your organisation is going in the right direction, it will also ensure that the fire burning inside of you will burn even brighter!! Your organisation will benefit from knowing that you are making big strides towards sustainable customer centricity, giving you and your colleagues even more confidence to continue evolving.

Do you have a customer experience initiative that deserves the highest recognition? Join the race for the most coveted accolades in CX! Find out more about UK CXA? '22?here .